You have to feel sorry for any kid that gets taken away from his momma at the are of five- but when that child grows up to be someone whose job seems to be dispensing nothing but bad news, , you have to feel even sorrier for the poor little mite.
Samuel was indeed chosen by God at an early age to go tell Eli, his priest and mentor, that God, as his Gaffer, did not approve of Eli or his sons. Oh, boy. You would think that God was quite capable of telling Eli directly, Him being omnipotent an' all - but there you go, that's the way the story gets told.
Certain people , down through the ages have been susceptible to being ' fey' as the Scots call it. They see visions and hear voices that the rest of us are not party to. As my previous post explained, i think this is down to what the Hindus call ' Kundalini', the raising up of spiritual energies within oneself so that on may access higher wavelengths on the material plane , so to speak.
But, it is not just a Hindu thing - many Christians that I have met personally also seem to have these gifts of 'second sight', clairvoyance and clairaudience, prophecy, or whatever you want to call it.
In my time, I have done the Alpha Course, attended Spiritualist churches, and spoken to Evangelical Christians who have related stories first hand of incidents that happened to them. Most of them seemed to have some credibility about them.
As well as Graham Kendrick and Jackie Pullinger, whom I have already mentioned in previous posts, I have also met an evangelical who gave weekend workshops on what he called ' the prophetic gift' when he came to St Luke's in nearby Cranham. but before then , on my long return trip from Paganism to to the Christian fold, I came across Spiritualism , as a religious movement, and saw various mediums at work when I went to their meetings.
The mediums I met did not meet in a circle around a flickering candle, but stood in well lit rooms in front of rows of seats, as if at a lecture. One such lady told me that she could see a man standing behind me in military uniform. hen you think that I was born not long after two World Wars had just been fought, this did not surprise me - all my male relatives from previous generations had been called up and put on uniforms of one sort or other. So I asked her what sort of uniform she could see- Army , Navy or Airforce? She plumped for a red tunic- and I asked if the chap was wearing medals, and if so, how many " quite a few" was her vague reply. Under detailed cross examination from me, she was not that impressive, I thought.
Another medium asked me if the name 'Joh' meant anything - well, was it 'Jo ' or ' Joe' , I wondered - but simply said "My mothers name".
" I have Jo here" the medium told me. "Ok, "I replied "is it a man or a woman you have there?" i asked . He looked baffled.
" My mother is still alive and I don't know anyone among my mothers friends called 'Joe' or 'Jo' ,you see2 ii smiled. He quickly covered his tracks and moved on.
This is what is known as ' Cold reading ', people. Giving out a little information and letting the audience fill in the gaps, then coming back and telling them what they want to hear. " I have someone here whose name begins with A" - do the Dearly Departed forget their own names suddenly, or what ? Or they say that they see ' a little brown dog' - most dogs are some shade of brown , at a stretch. And even a Great Dane gets seen when it was a puppy.
But not all mediums were like that, I have to say. Some were capable of picking up and passing on an awful lot of really specific stuff that had people listening with open mouths. One medium said that he saw a man sitting under a dense cloud and could tell that he was deeply troubled. He then talked about the specifics without any prompting, whatever and left the man with a positive and hope filled message. Fair play to him.
Now, our Evangelical Christian who did the weekend course did mention that the Holy Spirit often used puns and wordplay among the symbols that were shown to the prophet - I am minded to recall that the Bible says "In former times, the Prophet was called ' a Seer', as it says in the Book of Samuel.
The Evangelical man told us how he once was talking to an audience, and he told a woman in the audience that God showed him a vision of her with another woman who came to her and dropped this heavy tyre round her neck, and he felt the weight of the tyre pressing down on her shoulders. He described this other woman , and the lady in the audience laughed, for it was her mother in law that the he had described - a Mrs Dunlop!So, the Holy Spirit, it seems, uses word play, puns and symbols to tell a story and give a message.
And so did the more genuine Mediums from Spiritualist churches, I would point out. One man in particular stands out in my memory - Matthew Manning. I recall reading about him in my younger days- he was quite a famous psychic back in the 70s. Matthew claimed that he could channel the spirit of a doctor who died back in the 1700s. He would diagnose people's condition for them and offer advice that was often very detailed, as well as actually lay hands on people who claimed that they experienced something miraculous.. He is an author, psychic and healer still living and working today, and has been subjected to all kinds of scientific tests, which consistently show unusual results to say the least. personally, I don't have a problem believing in Poltegiests, ESP, or healing by touch. Many will say of Manning that he gets his powers either from God or the Devil. I believe though , that they are simply naturally occurring an a few gifted people - like we often find the ability to play music by ear or ambidextrousity sometimes. I don't question Manning's ability to do strange things like healing , but I reckon it comes from some paranormal, rather than supernatural power.
I was told many years ago, of a case where he told a man once that he was suffering a rare form of cancer - now the man had indeed ben diagnosed with this condition - but in fact the diagnosis was wrong .
As I said, I heard this story at a psychic healing conference I attended back in the 80's, in Dorset. and it raised a question in my mind - if this report was correct, how and why did Mr. Manning pick this information up? Could it be that all a psychic is getting is simply what is given off by people's aura? Hence, I pass it on here, in good faith, and hope that somehow we can together find an answer.accept that I cannot find my original sources. It would be quite possible that the person who told me this was wrong - but I do recall having this conversation.
It does raise an intriguing possibility. The man thought he genuinely was suffering from cancer, so that is what Matthew Manning got - not the full facts, as revealed later on, but the information in the mind of his sitter.So, if you know Aunty Ethel really well, then a medium or a seer may see her while looking at you,and even describe her mannerisms to you? hence , we may have proof of telepathy, but not life after death. This may well be what happened to Saul when he went to see the Witch of Endor. Saul, the insecure pessimist he was might well have guessed what Samuel's reaction may have been , and that is what the medium picked up. And prophecy today, in an Evangelical or Spiritualist church , and coming through a person in the congregation , may well be just the Seer reading what is in the aura of the audience, and not any form of Help From On High.
One way to test this is if a psychic could reveal something that is not in the mind of any sitter present. Again , it must be something subject to independent verification. If we could come up with the name of Mr. Manning's patient, we may get a clearer idea of what actually happened. The woman who told me this didn't supply the patient's name, but as I say - the claim has been made and it ought to be investigated and either verified or discredited.
If this is true, however , it does explain why people like Graham Kendrick can get messages about songs they are writing - but could god not be giving more important messages to more important folks, do you think ? And Jackie Pullinger may well be the sort of person who can allow the flow of Chi, Prana , or ' Holy Spirit ' to the point where someone she has blessed by laying on of hand will be able to access other languages in the heads of people around them. Even so, we may appreciate these as natural gifts, as we appreciate and use the talents of our church organists, but lets not have them used to augment and not supplant the gift of rational thinking , which is less quirky in operation and more widely available on a practical level.
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